Solar Panels

Solar panel electricity systems, also known as solar photo voltaics (PV), capture the sun’s energy using photo voltaic cells. These cells don’t need direct sunlight to work – they can still generate some electricity on a cloudy day. The cells convert the sunlight into electricity, which can be used to run household appliances and lighting.

Solar modules use light energy photons from the sun to generate electricity through the photo voltaic effect. The majority of modules use wafer-based crystalline silicon cells or thin-film cells based on cadmium telluride or silicon.

The structural (load carrying) member of a module can either be the top layer or the back layer. Cells must also be protected from mechanical damage and moisture. Most solar modules are rigid, but semi-flexible ones are available, based on thin-film cells.

Mono Crystalline vs Poly Crystalline Cells

Solar Panels come with a variety of underlying silicon cell types. Two of the most common types of cells available in the market are Mono Crystalline Cells and Poly Crystalline Cells. Most of the people who are going solar find themselves facing the question of which cell technology to go for.

This question, however, is not as fearsome as it seems and one can very easily decide on which technology to go for. The major factors that influence the choice of cell technology are the demographics and the environmental conditions of the area where the panels are to be installed. Mono Crystalline perform better in cool areas, however they performance decreases sharply as the temperature rises.

The decrease in the output of the Poly Crystalline is lower than that of the Mono Crystalline Panels with a rise in temperature. Also the degradation factor of the cells with the rise in temperature is lower in case of Poly Crystalline Panels.

Therefore for hot areas and countries where summer lasts longer, Poly Crystalline Panels are recommended. As the temperature is usually very high in most of the areas of Pakistan and the duration of summer season is about 8 months, we recommend installing Poly Crystalline Solar Panels in Pakistan.